Los Angeles County Department Of Children S Services

The county has removed five children from the South Los Angeles home of a prominent foster care advocate after the youngsters complained of physical abuse in the home. Lupe and Bennie Ross, the legal guardians of four of the children, are awaiting hearings to determine whether they can regain custody of the youngsters or care for other foster children.

A 6-year-old boy whose battered body was found on the floor of a South Los Angeles home was the subject of roughly a dozen calls to Los Angeles County's child abuse hotline alleging abuse or neglect, a county official briefed on the case told The Times on Friday. Dae'von Bailey had injuries that suggested blows or other trauma over an extended period of time, said Lt. Vincent Neglia of the LAPD's Abused Child Section.

Los Angeles County officials have removed all 68 teenagers from a group home in Van Nuys, saying that the emotionally disturbed clientele was poorly supervised and that counseling, recreation and other services were lacking. County probation and child welfare authorities removed the teenagers from the Pride House group home on Saticoy Street, completing the transfers Friday after repeated reports that the 85-member staff could not control the youths.

More than a year before a boy was allegedly subjected to extreme abuse and torture, Los Angeles County officials in 2005 investigated allegations that he suffered from neglect and was at "substantial risk." But officials ultimately determined the claims to be inconclusive, according to county records obtained by The Times. At the time, the boy's mother, Starkeisha Brown, had been arrested on suspicion of stealing a bracelet and other items at a Macy's department store with the child in tow.

A few of the nation's top child welfare advocates call him "St. Peter," a tribute to the man who rode to the rescue in 1996, when Congress threatened to slash payments for abused and neglected children. Some of his own employees turn out a newsletter depicting Gerald Peter Digre, in contrast, as a horned devil. They say that he saddles social workers with too much work, too much blame and not enough power to help children and families.

The judges who supervise Los Angeles County's Juvenile Court on Wednesday angrily rejected as an "outright fraud" a report alleging the court endangers children and said their review of 14 controversial cases shows that the critique seriously misrepresented the court's actions. Superior Court Judge Michael Nash, supervisor of the court that oversees the county's abused and neglected children, said he is considering asking the State Bar Assn.

Ed and Judy Shrader got everything most parents don't want when adopting a child. They got boys and girls of different colors and races. They got boys and girls whose parents they would hardly know. They got boys and girls who stewed in alcohol, drugs, or both, in their mothers' wombs. Five times now, the Shraders have gotten these things. And five times they have been thrilled and blessed by the results.

For the past four months, Jerry and Sally Freeman have waged a battle against the county Department of Children and Family Services bureaucracy to keep their severely disabled 3-year-old foster son, Manny, in the only home he has ever known. They have called, e-mailed and faxed agency officials in an effort to get them to pay for a wheelchair ramp for Manny, who suffers from cerebral palsy--a result of his mother's heavy drug use and a stroke she suffered during pregnancy, caseworkers said.

A Los Angeles County social worker--first stabbed, then left bound and barefoot at a Wilmington oil refinery--managed to free herself and help police find the man suspected of kidnapping her and a 14-year-old foster child, authorities said Monday. The resilience and bravery of social worker Lucie Whitcomb was credited by co-workers with the quick capture Saturday of the alleged kidnapper, Troy Lee Mendenhall.

The already troubled agency charged with caring for Los Angeles County's poor and abused children faces a severe budget crunch that could force as many as 190 short-term layoffs at a time when caseloads are likely to spiral upward, the agency's new chief said Tuesday. In his first public appearance since beginning the job three weeks ago, Peter Digre told the citizen panel that oversees the Department of Children's Services that he would press state and local officials to help make up a $9.

By the time a social worker is brought into a child's life, warning flags have already been noticed. Has a child or infant been abused, physically or sexually? Are drugs in the household? Are the children abandoned? Can the parent be counseled? Or do the children need to be placed in foster care? It can be a tough job anywhere.

The head of Los Angeles County's foster care agency vowed on Tuesday to comply by June 30 with federal rules on monitoring the homes of foster children living with relatives, to solve a problem that has cost the county an estimated $6 million over the last year. Social workers are behind in conducting assessments and annual reassessments of about 3,200 homes to ensure that they meet health and safety requirements, said Patricia S.

The board of supervisors unanimously named Steven J. Golightly, an administrator for county child support services, the head of that department. Golightly replaces his former boss, Philip L. Browning, who will oversee the county department of social services.

Seventy-nine children with ties to Los Angeles County's child protection system were victims of homicide during the first 11 months of this year, prompting concern among child welfare advocates who say the county must do more to protect at-risk youths. The 79 homicides were more than twice the 37 at-risk children slain in all of 2005, and accounted for nearly half of all juvenile homicides countywide. Most of the 79 killings were believed to have been gang-related.

Philip L. Browning, chief of the county's child support services department, will replace the retiring head of county social services in April, the Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday. Browning will take over for retiring department chief Bryce Yokomizo, with an annual salary of $195,000, effective April 1. The department provides low-income county residents with financial help, affordable health insurance and food benefits, and in-home services for the elderly and disabled.

Lawyers representing foster children in Los Angeles County asked a federal court Tuesday to order the county to fulfill its promise under a 2003 legal settlement to radically overhaul its treatment services for thousands of mentally ill children. Describing the county's plan for treating foster children as "woefully inadequate," the attorneys filed legal papers asking that an independent panel of experts develop a better blueprint.

County child protection officers failed for more than a year to investigate a report that an 11-year-old Long Beach girl was allegedly being sexually molested by her grandfather, police records show. During that period, the girl continued to be sent to her grandfather's home for family visits while the report apparently languished in a Los Angeles County Department of Children's Services file. She later told authorities she endured more sexual abuse in that time.

Los Angeles County sheriff's detectives asked prosecutors Monday to charge a 53-year-old foster mother with murder for allegedly beating to death a 3-year-old girl authorities had placed in her care, department officials said. Doris Jean Bennett of Willowbrook was given custody of both Gilbreania Wallace and her older sister Cashey, 5, after county social workers took the girls from their maternal grandmother, who then began waging a court fight to get them back.

County child-welfare officials Thursday removed two children from the Compton homes where a 7-year-old boy was shot to death this week, police said. The children had been living with numerous relatives in a pair of bullet-riddled houses that Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department officials called "a crash pad for known gang members." The houses in the 14500 block of South Harris Avenue were the site of two fatal shootings this month. On Monday about 8 a.m., Horace Ray Ferguson Jr.

Police are searching for the parents of a 2-day-old infant abandoned Tuesday at California Hospital Medical Center. The Department of Children's Services was notified about the infant, a black female. A California law effective this year allows any parent to leave a baby 72 hours or younger at any hospital emergency room without the threat of prosecution. Police want to confirm that the child was not abducted.